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The Pacers certainly made Game Four interesting. They did win, however, so let’s start
with the good: going back to the regular season, they won their 7th straight road game
and now head home with a 3-1 series lead on the Magic. It would take a collapse over
the next three games that even Indiana seems incapable of to not advance to the next
round. And if we look just at Game Four, the team showed an ability to step up on key
possessions. They made plays when they needed to make plays.

Now, the bad: everything else that happened in the fourth quarter.

With just 8:14 remaining in regulation, the Pacers led 82-63. Then Indiana, particularly
its interior defense, decided to take the rest of the quarter off, allowing the Magic to
end the game on a 26-7 run that extended the contest into overtime. This wasn’t
exactly the Grizzlies letting the Clippers come back from down 21 points with 12
minutes to play — it was, mathematically, worse. Moreover, the Magic don’t employ
Chris Paul or Blake Griffin.

How in the world could this happen?

With a total defensive breakdown. And perhaps a questionable coaching decision.

The run began with two Jameer Nelson/Glen Davis pick-and-rolls that were defended
equally poorly. On the first, David West (weakly) moved over to stall Nelson’s ball
penetration and make no real attempt to recover as Jameer made an easy bounce
pass to a rolling Davis. No other Pacer reacted either and Baby got the easy dunk.
On the second, Nelson found no resistance and drove all the way to the hoop for an
uncontested layup.

They switched it up after that, instead letting JJ Redick handle the ball in an end-line
out of bounds play. Davis set the screen, Leandro Barbosa and Roy Hiibbert acted
entirely indifferent to JJ’s drive and the former Dukie finished at the rim. Orlando
wisely went with this two-man game again soon and while Hibbert played the action
better, Leandro was again caught in no man’s land and nearly stumbled as he
fruitlessly flailed at Big Baby as he walked his way to an easy dunk.

Indiana’s once-19-point lead was down to 11 with just over 6 minutes to play.

With 8:14 left in the fourth quarter, the Orlando Magic were down by 19 points with the
score at 82-63 in favor of the Indiana Pacers.

The Pacers, just like in Games 2 and 3, used a strong third quarter surge (outscoring
the Magic by 10 points in the period) to increase their lead to double-digits heading into
the fourth quarter. And early on in the period, it seemed like Indiana was going to blow
Orlando out of the water and put them out of their misery.

Staring at a 19-point deficit and also a 3-1 series deficit, things were looking bleak for
the Magic. But instead of rolling over, head coach Stan Van Gundy — ever the fighter —
didn’t give up. Coming out of an official timeout, Van Gundy made an adjustment that
sparked a 26-7 run to end the fourth quarter, culminating in Nelson getting a chance to
win the game on Orlando’s final possession in regulation.

What adjustment was that?

With Ryan Anderson continuing to get bottled up by the Pacers in Game 4, just like in
the first three games of the series, Van Gundy went small and rolled the dice with a 5-
man unit of Nelson-Redick-J. Richardson-Turkoglu-Davis. It’s a lineup that played a
total of one minute together in the regular season.

So you can forgive head coach Frank Vogel for not being prepared and expecting that
lineup to take the floor for the Magic.

That small-ball unit for Orlando rolled off 14 consecutive points, to cut their deficit to
five points with the score at 82-77, before Indiana responded a basket of their own. At
that point, the Magic — echoing the fighting spirit of Van Gundy — made it clear that
they weren’t going...CONTINUE READING AT MAGIC BASKETBALL

There are a slew of basketball analysts out there, and if you’re so inclined, you can find
a respectable personality predicting almost every single outcome. I try to limit myself,
listening to a consistent chorus of voices that I have particular respect for. The numbers
side of me loves John Hollinger, while my heart likes listening to Michael Wilbon and
Chris Broussard. I’ve been lucky enough to meet a close friend, Drew Shaner, who has
the rare combination of appealing to both. He’s a friend that I would place my absolute
trust in if my basketball fan-hood was on the line. I’d like to introduce you to a numbers-
based rating system, developed by Mr. Shaner, that helps rank the remaining playoff
teams.

“Defensive Rating and Experience Wins”, DREW for short, helps the common basketball
fan determine the most likely winner of each series, and finally, the NBA title. This
system may not appeal to everyone, but my experiences rooting alongside Drew give
me a lot of faith in his method.

The first step to crowning a champion is rating each player on each teamss starting five
on a scale from 1-10. Drew used a simple grading system: a perfect 10 for MVP
candidates, 8-9 for all stars, and onward down. This system rewards balanced teams
that have five viable threats, you know, the type of team that tends to succeed in the
summer months.

After calculating the team score for each roster, Drew factors in coaching and
defensive tenacity. With the worst player being ranked 4, he made +/- 3 points
maximum for “intangibles”, as it’s hard to quantify intangibles as being more
valuable than any specific player.

The Bulls (“huge credit to Thibs and their lock down defense”) were the only team
in the East to max out on intangible credit, boosting their total score to 37.

The Celtics and 76ers both gained 2 points, while the Hawks, Magic, Heat, and
Pacers all gained 1 point.

The Knicks lack of aggression on the defensive end (no bonus points for dominating
fire extinguishers) and a fill-in head coach left them as the only playoff team with
a negative intangible score.

I seriously hope that the only thing that the frontcourt and GH/DC was doing over the last 2 days was working on their 'Pick and Roll' defense. Seriously, they were killing us with this throughout the entire series.

Frank Vogel's pre-game speech: "Alright guys, I know I've been talking about stomping throats all season, but tonight we face the Mother Of All Throats. Roy, I want you to drop-kick the throat. Paul, spinning heel kick the throat. Danny, stomp the throat without traveling. David, I don't even need to tell you. Once this throat is stomped, it will not draw breath again."

On the radio today up here in Lafayette they were promoting one of the local bars carrying the game and wanted everyone to show up in blue and gold. They are having specials just for tonight. This is the first time in a loooong time that I have heard anything like this in Lafayette. They never talk about the Pacers up here on the radio, let alone promote viewing the game at a sports bar.......Pacer Fever is spreading.

Frank Vogel's pre-game speech: "Alright guys, I know I've been talking about stomping throats all season, but tonight we face the Mother Of All Throats. Roy, I want you to drop-kick the throat. Paul, spinning heel kick the throat. Danny, stomp the throat without traveling. David, I don't even need to tell you. Once this throat is stomped, it will not draw breath again."

Gregg Williams, is that you? So, after your banishment from the NFL, you decided to change sports, and are hiding out on an NBA board?

On the radio today up here in Lafayette they were promoting one of the local bars carrying the game and wanted everyone to show up in blue and gold. They are having specials just for tonight. This is the first time in a loooong time that I have heard anything like this in Lafayette. They never talk about the Pacers up here on the radio, let alone promote viewing the game at a sports bar.......Pacer Fever is spreading.

I somehow never realized that you live in Lafayette. I won't be able to tonight, but if this bar keeps showing games through the second round, we should meet up for one or two. What bar is it?

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-tr...nce-stephenson
"But, first, let us now praise famous moments, because something happened Tuesday night in Indianapolis that you can watch a lifetime’s worth of professional basketball and never see again. There was a brief, and very decisive, and altogether unprecedented, outburst of genuine officiating, and it was directed at the best player in the world, and that, my dear young person, simply is not done."

Frank Vogel's pre-game speech: "Alright guys, I know I've been talking about stomping throats all season, but tonight we face the Mother Of All Throats. Roy, I want you to drop-kick the throat. Paul, spinning heel kick the throat. Danny, stomp the throat without traveling. David, I don't even need to tell you. Once this throat is stomped, it will not draw breath again."